By placing confidence in violent means, one has chosen the very type of struggle with which the oppressors nearly always have superiority.
Gene SharpThat is straight out of Gandhi. If people are not afraid of the dictatorship, that dictatorship is in big trouble. โฆ If you fight with violence, you are fighting with your enemyโs best weapon, and you may be a brave but dead hero.
Gene SharpAs soon as you choose to fight with violence you're choosing to fight against your opponents best weapons and you have to be smarter than that.
Gene SharpSo, he reasoned, if you can identify the sources of a government's power - people working in civil service, police and judges, even the army - then you know what a dictatorship depends on for its existence.
Gene Sharp